Section
1: The name of the
organization shall be North
Louisiana Historical Association (NLHA).

Section
2: The North Louisiana
Historical Association is
organized to encourage an appreciation and understanding of the history
of
North Louisiana.For
purposes of the
organization, “North Louisiana” is considered to include all of the
State from
approximately Alexandria northwards.The
NLHA is a not-for-profit educational and social organization chartered
by the
State.

Section
3: The Archives of Noel Memorial Library, Louisiana State University in
Shreveport, is the
designated records repository for the NLHA.

ARTICLE
II: MEMBERSHIP

Section
1: Membership is open to
any individual, family,
business, or organization that subscribes to the purposes of the NLHA.

Section
2: Dues shall be set by
the Board of Directors and
will be paid on a calendar year basis.

ARTICLE
III: MEETINGS

Section
1: Annual Meeting.The date,
time, and location of the annual
meeting will be set by the
Board of Directors and will be the main business meeting of the
organization.It will
generally be held
in conjunction with the spring luncheon.

Section
2: Special Meetings.To the
extent possible, there will be two
special meetings per year at
different locations in North Louisiana.Every
attempt will be made to hold the
meetings at places of historical
interest and to obtain a speaker on a historical topic.

Section
3: Notice.Notice of
meetings will be mailed to members.Meetings
are open to the membership, guests,
and members of the public.

ARTICLE
IV: BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Section
1: Role, Size,
Compensation.The Board
is responsible for
overall policy
and direction of the NLHA.The Board
may
delegate responsibility for specific activities or projects to
committees made
up of members of the organization.The
Board shall consist of fifteen members serving staggered three-year
terms, five
new members being elected each year.Board
members are eligible for re-election for
two consecutive
terms.After
serving two consecutive
terms, a board member may not be re-elected within the next year.The
board receives no compensation other than
reasonable expenses.

Section
2: Meetings.The Board
will meet in conjunction with the
annual and special
meetings.Special
Board meetings may be
called by the President or by one-third of the Board, and due notice
will be
given of the same.

Section
3: Board Elections.Election of
the Board of the NLHA will occur
as the first item of
business at the annual meeting.Directors
will be elected by a majority vote
of the members in
attendance.Officers
will be elected by
the Board of Directors in their meeting after the annual meeting.

Section
4: Quorum.At
least eight Board members must be present before business can be
transacted or
motions made or passed.

Section
5: Officers and Duties.
There shall be five officers
of the NLHA consisting of a President, Vice President, Secretary,
Treasurer,
and Editor of the Association’s journal, North
Louisiana History.Their
duties are
as follows:

President

--Coordinates
all activities of the Board
--Assures
that officers and committees are performing assigned tasks
--Chairs
meetings of the Board and membership --Collects
and deposits records of the Association at the LSUS Archives

Vice-President

--Chairs
the Program Committee,
which recommends the place and speaker for future programs; coordinates
programs with Board
--Prepares
meeting notices for
mailing to membership
--Is
responsible for the
annual meeting; coordinates
place, speaker, time, etc., with Board--Presents
the
Overdyke/Bradbury Awards
at the annual meeting

Secretary

--Prepares
minutes of each Board
and membership meeting and provides them to the Editor for inclusion in
North
Louisiana History and provides
minutes to each member of the Board

--Annotates
minutes for action
items and unfinished business and provides such annotations to the
President at
least two weeks prior to the next meeting

Treasurer

--Provides
periodic financial
reports to the Board with a copy to the Secretary and Editor for
inclusion in North
Louisiana History

--Collects
and deposits dues.A first
dues notice
should be mailed in
January, a past due notice in March-April, and a final notice in
June-July.Members who
have failed to
pay dues by August will be dropped from the rolls.

--Maintains
the NLHA checkbook,
paying creditors on demand

--Maintains
the membership roll
and mailing list

--Answers
correspondence as
necessary and appropriate

Editor

--Solicits
appropriate articles
for inclusion in North
Louisiana History
(the journal)

--Edits
articles submitted for clarity, accuracy, and content

--Supervises
publication of the
journal with the printer and assures timely distribution

--Includes
meeting minutes and
financial reports in the journal

Officers
shall serve two-year
terms and may be
re-elected.The
immediate past president
will be invited to serve as an ex-officio officer for one term.

Section
6: Vacancies. An ad
hoc committee made up of the
NLHA’s past three presidents will
solicit
nominations for annual vacancies on the Board; those nominations will
be
presented to the floor at the annual meeting.Mid-term
vacancies may be filled by a majority
vote of the Board, taken
at any meeting.Such
vacancies will be
filled only to the end of the particular member’s (or officer’s) term.

Section
7: Resignation,
Termination and Absences.Resignation
from
the Board or of an officer
must be in writing and received by the Secretary.A
Board member may be dropped for excess
absences from Board meetings if s/he has three unexcused absences in a
year.An officer
or Board member may be
removed for other reasons by a three-fourths vote of the remaining
directors.

Section
8: Special Meetings. Special
meetings of the Board may be called
upon the request of the President or one-third of the Board.Notice
of special meetings shall be sent out
by the Secretary to each Board member postmarked two weeks in advance.

ARTICLE
V: COMMITTEES

Section 1:
The Board may create
committees as needed.The
President will
appoint committee chairs
and members.

Section
2: The Editor will chair
the committee for selecting
the annual Overdyke Award winners.The
President, in consultation with the Editor, will select three committee
members
to judge each division.The
committee
will solicit papers on some aspect of North Louisiana history from both
graduates and undergraduates.The authors
of the best papers will receive monetary awards, their papers shall be
published
exclusively in North
Louisiana History, and each
will receive a one-year subscription to the journal.

Section
3: The President will
appoint three members to a
committee for selection of the Bradbury Award.It
is a monetary award presented to the author
of the best article on
North Louisiana historyprinted in North
Louisiana History over the
course
of the past calendar year.

ARTICLE
VI: DISSOLUTION

Section
1: Upon dissolution of
the Association, the Officers
will assure that all outstanding obligations of the Association have
been
met.The Board
will then designate an
appropriate recipient for any remaining assets, with preference being
given to
educational institutions or scholarship funds related to United States
history
in general and Louisiana history in particular.The
Association’s Constitution/Articles of
Incorporation must be
considered in this regard.

ARTICLE
VII:AMENDMENTS

Section
1: These Bylaws may be
amended when necessary by a
majority of the Board of Directors.Proposed
amendments must be submitted to the
Secretary to be sent out
with regular Board announcements or other Association business.

These
Bylaws were approved at a
meeting of the Board of
Directors of the North Louisiana Historical Association on February 12,
2006.